August 7, 2009

During the last legislative session in Olympia, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington worked hard to get legislation to address the issue of vehicle detection systems not turning lights green for bicycles and motorcycles. They succeeded with Senate Bill 5482 (Section 10).

Now it is time to let jurisdictions know when those two wheels are not enough to turn the light green. While the detectors may not get fixed right away, they can prioritize locations based on the information you provide. Here is how to do it:

For Issaquah city streets, contact the Public Works Operations department using the information or form on the city’s contact form.

For the city of Sammamish, it looks like the best way is to submit a Citizen Action Request. (You can do that for Issaquah too, but they don’t have an online method of submission. They have a form you can print out and mail.)

For signals in unincorporated King County, contact the county using this form.

What the bill says basically is that signal detectors must detect bikes and that if the detector isn’t marked then the detection zone should be assumed to be in the center of the travel lane just behind the stop line. If there is a signal on your route which doesn’t detect bikes and you don’t feel safe crossing against the signal, please use the methods above to notify the city or state of the failing intersection.